The EU Nature Restoration Law came into force on 18 August 2024. The aim of the law is to initiate restoration measures on 20% of Europe’s land and sea area by 2030. This is a significant step, as around 80% of European habitats are currently in a poor state. With the Nature Restoration Law, the member states are obliged to develop national restoration plans with strategies for the restoration of land and water.

For Europe’s rivers, this means that a total of 25,000 kilometres are to be restored and turned into free-flowing rivers by 2030. In addition, a largely undisturbed sediment balance should be ensured and fish and other organisms should be able to move more freely.

What are Free Flowing Rivers?

Free flowing rivers are rivers or river stretches that can flow freely. They are not restricted by any major obstacles and are well connected to their floodplain. Water, sediment, fish and other organisms can move freely creating healthy, dynamic and species-rich river landscapes.

Today, however, only less than 50% of Austria’s rivers are in good ecological condition. There are only a few sections in which our rivers can flow freely and the natural processes in our rivers are severely impaired by numerous barriers. Such barriers include lateral structures such as dams, weirs or hydropower plants, but also obstacles along the river banks such as bank stabilisation and flood protection dams, as well as vertical barriers such as riverbed paving. All of these obstacles change the flow and course of a river and influence its behaviour for instance in times of flood and drought. They also severely restrict the movement of fish and other organisms along a river.

Healthy river landscapes for people and nature

Free-flowing rivers, however, do not only have ecological benefits. Healthy river landscapes, for example, also protect us from flooding and are attractive recreational areas where we can be close to nature.

For planned restoration measures to be successful, it is important to consider not only individual river sections, but the entire catchment area. This means, for example, ensuring that migration obstacles below the free-flowing river sections are passable for fish so that they can reach the free-flowing sections in the first place. Fish often migrate for kilometres upstream and downstream to find suitable spawning grounds, search for food or adapt to seasonal or ecological changes. Impassable obstacles are one of the main reasons why approximately half of all fish species in Austria are highly endangered. The reason is that such obstacles often prevent the animals from reaching suitable habitats.

What does the Nature Restoration Law have to do with IRIS?

Free Flowing Rivers need space and giving rivers more space is also the aim of IRIS. Thanks to the project’s integrative approach, IRIS does not only consider individual rivers, but the entire catchment area to ensure that different measures along a river complement each other. With the GE-RM planning tool (River Development and Risk Management Concept), which is being tested as part of the IRIS project, and the establishment of so-called river development corridors, IRIS provides an important planning basis for the restoration of free-flowing river sections.

CONCLUSION: IRIS is in line with the Nature Restoration Law and, with its integrative approaches, represents an important basis for the realisation of the objectives defined in the NRL.

Photocredits: Bernhard Schubert.